I don’t like going to accident sites. I don’t like seeing holes the size of babies in windshields and learning that one was made by a baby. I don’t like seeing blood spewed across pavement or a body part sticking out from under flipped cars.
What I do like is asking what happened. Not so much for the actual information but for how differently police officers and witnesses describe an event.
On Wednesday a two-vehicle crash sent a pickup off the U.S. 281/St. Mary’s Street overpass. Before taking the 20-foot drop, the pickup bounced of both sides of the freeway and then slid along the guardrail before flipping over the side of the overpass 20 feet to the street.
There were several witnesses, who like most witnesses, used one hand to illustrate the red truck bumping and skidding along the highway, sliding over the guardrail and then flipping over the guardrail. That was OK, but their hands would get twisted in awkward positions and they would have to start over.
SAPD Lt. Joseph MacKay likes to use his whole body to represent a vehicle with his arms tucked in at his sides and at right angles. He then steps side to side to illustrate swerving and bends at the waist when the cars start to roll. That works but you have to give him a large space to work in.
But by far the best descriptions come from skateboarders. When they describe crashes, the vehicles do rail slides along barriers, grinds on metal posts and clear gaps.